Brush Your Tears Away
by G'reth the Air Dragon
Summary: Gift-fic for friend  Garrus learns that one of their recent additions of three on the Normandy is having problems, so he decides to go visit her.  Rated for fluff !


**Well, here's another fic, guys! :D **

**Now, just so you know, this is a fic that I wrote while I was texting my friend, who wasn't feeling too good after she took some steroid pills for her asthma. And since I'm also many miles away from her (due to work) compared to the 5-10 minute drive I used to do to visit them nearly every day, it also upset her that I wasn't around and I was upset that I couldn't help her feel better. So, there was only one logical way for me to show her my love and support for her (and her twin sister):**

**Write a gift-fic! :DD**

**Also, a little bit of a heads up, there are some spoilers in here for a future crack-fic I intend on writing where me and my two friends end up in Mass Effect (you'd be surprised by the crazy and silly stuff we came up with. XD)...of course, it'll only be partial crack, mostly because a lot of the insanity is going to be from my friends and I, not the crew...except minor silliness. XD**

**Okay then, anything else? *thinks for a moment* Oh yes, a lot of this stuff is based on real things that happened to my friends, and while this might not be my best written story, each and every word came from my heart, and that's a true fact!**

**Reviews and little tid-bits don't hurt though. :3 Anyway, ENOUGH RAMBLING! On with the fic!...and I don't own Mass Effect, sadly, or I would have made turians romancable in the very first game. TT^TT**

* * *

><p><em>Whump!<em>

"Oof!" Lauren grunted as she found herself lying flat on the ground. Wincing a little in pain, she squinted one eye open when a shadow fell across her small frame. She tensed at the dinosaur-like face that peered down at her with mandibles twitching, the scanner that covered one of the blue-ish eyes flashing through things she couldn't understand.

"You okay, kid?" the turian asked in concern. "It looked like you landed a little funny."

She tried to push herself up with her elbows, only to fall back down with a hiss when her right shoulder gave out on her. "Ouch," she grunted, her hand reaching up to grip the shoulder instinctively.

"Yup. You landed funny," Garrus said as he carefully reached down and helped her sit up. "Might want to get that checked out."

"Gee, ya think?" she snapped irritably, to which he ignored. She was tired and cranky ever since he had dragged her into the training area to work on her sparring before breakfast, and the pain in her shoulder wasn't helping either.

"Come on, let's get you to Chakwas," he told her, pulling her up and helping her walk out of the training room. "You know how she gets with you three."

Lauren gave a slight chuckle of amusement at that. "Chakwas?" she scoffed. "What about Shepard? She'd freak out if something happened to me and the girls."

Of course, she was referring to her friends Katy and Geni, both of whom are natural twins. The only thing that was unnatural about the three of them, other than one being a natural blond and the others being twins, was that they were not originally from this universe, or this reality even.

They had come from another dimension where this universe and all that was in it was based on a game, having unexpectedly dropped in on Saren before he had a chance to kill Nihlus. This caused the young specter to live, changing some of the events. The oldest of the three, Lauren, had later claimed that so long as Shepard became a Spectre and went after Saren, then things would go according to plan…despite the sudden change in the beginning.

"Oh yeah, almost forgot about her," Garrus smirked. Ever since the three had arrived on the Normandy, Commander Shepard had taken a sort of protective older sister role over them since they couldn't really stay on the Citadel. She didn't let them out on missions of course, but she had them help out around the ship to ensure that they were safe.

"Don't worry, if she attempts to skin you alive, I'll tell her I tripped and fell while you tried to leap dramatically to my rescue," Lauren said, struggling to smother a giggle that wanted to escape as she said this.

He couldn't help but laugh at that. "Even I wouldn't believe that," he chuckled in amusement, ruffling her hair affectionately.

She smiled up at him before they walked into the medical bay, listening as Doctor Chakwas berated them for not being more careful during training. After a quick scan, she announced that it was only sprained and, after applying the necessary treatment, told her to avoid using it for a few days or so.

Garrus was about to leave when something the doctor said caught his attention. "By the way, I have those steroid pills for your friend, Katy," Chakwas told the dark blond girl. "It took a little bit, but I was able to find a good formula that would give her better results. Could you take them to her for me?"

"Sure," Lauren nodded as she was handed the bottle in her free hand, the other in a brace. "Thanks for your help, Doctor Chakwas."

"It's no trouble at all," the older woman smiled. "Now hurry along before I change my mind in keeping you in here."

She nodded before she trotted out of the room, passing by Garrus as he stood there. When she was gone, he looked at the doctor and asked, "Steroid pills? I thought humans considered steroids to be bad."

Doctor Chakwas sighed as she shook her head and sat down at her desk. "Not all steroids are considered bad, Garrus," she told him. "Some are misused by others in competitions, yes, but that's not all they're used for. Katy is one of the few that needs them for her asthma."

He blinked in surprise. The girls always seemed to be so happy and full of energy, and not once did he consider them unhealthy. Sure, the twins may be a little…how did humans refer to them? Chubby? That's it, chubby. They may have been chubby, but when he heard their story and heard Lauren's explanation for the cause, he understood completely. No one should have to go through what they did as children. If they had been turians, things would have been dealt differently…

"I'm worried about them," Chakwas continued, her soft voice surprising him out of his thoughts. "They've been through so much pain as children…it makes me sick to know that their father was the cause of all their problems."

Their father…when the twins had told him the things that they had gone through when they lived with him, he felt his blood boil at that. He may have had problems with his own father in the past, but he knew that what their father did was unacceptable.

"Do you know where she is?" he asked before he realized what he had said.

"She might be in her room with the others," she responded.

"Thanks," he nodded, turning and leaving the medical bay. He walked through the halls of the ship to the crew's sleeping areas, where he knew the girl's would mostly likely be. When he reached their door, the panel red, he knocked on it to announce his presence and called out, "Girls? Can I come in?"

The panel turned green, a sign that it was okay for him to proceed. He found the girls inside, one of them sitting on the floor with a sketch-pad and pencil in hand while Lauren was sitting at the private terminal. Katy, however, was lying on her side on the bed, staring at the wall across from her. She didn't look too good, like she was trying to focus but the thoughts weren't coming together straight. The steroids must've taken effect already.

"Hey, Garrus," Lauren quipped as he stepped further into the room, not bothering to look up from a message she was reading from a friend she had made on the Citadel during one of their last visits. "Didn't expect to see you so soon."

He shrugged a little even though she didn't see it and said, "Got a little worried. How's Katy doing?"

Geni looked up from her latest drawing, which was starting to look like a female batarian wearing a hood, and told him, "She just took the medicine a little bit ago, so she's a little out of it at the moment."

Katy glanced up at the mention of her name and stared at him, her eyes seeming distant. He hummed a little at that. "Lauren? Geni? Do you think I could talk to her in private?" he asked.

Lauren finally turned away from the terminal screen and stared at him, but the look on his face, which she had learned to read over a period of time, was enough to convince her to not ask. "Oh, sure," she finally nodded as she got up. "Come on, Geni. Let's go talk to Nihlus or Tali. We can bug Joker too while we're at it."

"Okay," Geni replied as she got up, taking her book and pencil with her. "I need to give Tali that drawing I promised her anyway."

He waited until they were out of the room before he turned and walked over to Katy's bed, sitting down carefully as he stared down at her. Finally, after a pause, he asked, "How ya doin' kid?"

She didn't respond for a moment. Then, she said, "Horrible…I hate feeling this way."

"I would imagine so," he nodded in agreement. "You'd have to be crazy to enjoy something like this…or a krogan. Hard to say which is worse."

A barely caught the small smile on her face before it faded away. "I just can't…think straight when I'm on these things," she told him as she practically buried her face into her pillow. "It sucks…and I just wanna blow up at someone…or even break something."

"That's not good," he said in surprise.

"I know," she replied quietly, her voice quiet. "I feel like this all the time I take those things, but I have to…"

Though he wasn't much of an expert on humans, he knew enough from hanging around Lauren and the girls to catch the changes in their voices when they were close to crying. Reaching over, he gently touched her shoulder and said, "I know that this may be hard…but you're strong. Stronger than anyone I've ever met before. If I were to guess, I'd say that you were stronger than even Shepard."

She said nothing for a long time. Then, tilting her head up, she looked at him with one glossy eye and mumbled, "Really?"

He nodded, giving her a turian smile. "Yeah, you are. You've been through a living hell of your own, and you managed to escape it to make a better life for yourself. That takes courage…courage that I wish I had. You're a very special girl, Katy. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Not even Wrex. And if anyone dares try put you or your sister down and mess with the three of you, let me know…I'll come running with my sniper rifle."

Katy gave a real laugh at that, the same twinkle of mischief he had come to enjoy seeing returning to her beautiful eyes. "Thanks," she said, sniffling a little as a stray tear escaped. "I needed that."

Reaching out to her face, he carefully wiped the offending tear away from her cheek with a gloved talon and gently cupped her face in the palm of his hand. "No problem, Katy," he smiled warmly. "You three are like the pesky little sisters I never had…aside from my real sister of course. I wouldn't let anyone hurt my family, and you three are no exception…especially you."

Before she could register what was happening, he had leaned down and gently pressed his forehead against hers, giving a soft purr that reverberated through her body. When he stopped, he reached up and ruffled her hair playfully. "Now, how about when we stop on the Citadel next, I take you out for some of that 'creamed ice' that you girls love so much?"

She was shaken out of her shock when it hit her what he had said, causing her to burst into a fit of wild giggles he and many others had come to recognize. "Garrus, it's '_ice cream_'! Not '_creamed ice_'!" she told him.

"Same difference," he chuckled, glad to see that she was feeling better again. "Just don't start poking people while we're there. We don't need someone suing you for harassment charges."

"Aw man!" she pouted.

Life was too good to waste, and these girls deserved the best.

* * *

><p><strong>Well, there you have it! Yes, I showed these to my two friends, and they loved it so much~! ^u^ I hope you guys enjoyed it as well. :3<strong>


End file.
